People.. You already know that taking pictures of people is one of Łukasz’ travel perversions.. He photographs street merchants, kids, old men, sometimes smiling fishwives, sometimes monks buried in their thoughts. Each picture is preceded with a smile and a question. To be honest with you, Maks gets photographed without permission more often than strangers get photographed by us 😉
People are surely one the best things about Burma. Usually kind and helpful, even though communicating with them in English may be painful. 🙂 Sometimes they’re a bit irritating like in every country where tourism is a way to make money. When they jump you like vultures after 10 hours spent on a bus or right after leaving the airport, when they raise the prices or make up problems so absurd that you don’t know if you should laugh or cry. Because there’s no logical explanation for the unavailability of banana and chocolate pancakes whereas there are both chocolate pancakes and banana pancakes on the menu. They just can’t serve them together.
Two things that you first notice about locals are longyi and thanaka. Longyi is a long skirt-shawl which Burmese men wear. Usually dark-coloured, striped or checkered, tied with a knot around the waist. They work in it, drive cars, ride motorbikes. Thanaka is a peculiar slime which you can see on the faces of some of the people below, usually women’s or children’s. We never seen it on men’s faces. Thanaka may look like recklessly drawn stripes or take form of beautiful shapes. Why? Thanaka cools down your skin and protects it from the sun, it’s a natural cosmetic, a favourite one in Burma! You can also buy cream that contains it. We even seen billboards advertising it as a … great way to whiten your skin! One is for certain: thanaka makes women and children in Burma look exotic and intriguing!
After 1.5 weeks spent in Burma we’re confident enough to say that the Burmese love children. And Maks makes most of them smile. Young girls, couples in love, a wrinkled old lady, Buddhist monks buried in thoughts, drivers, even teenagers with smartphones in their hands who want to have a picture with him! In Burma, we were surrounded by smiles, kindness with no unpleasant situations whatsoever.
Burmese don’t know much about so called ‘customer service’ but that’s hardly a surprise ;)… Don’t expect anybody to take dirty plates from your table, bring extra cutlery or chopsticks. Sometimes you have to ask for it several times, but eventually you always succeed!
Most of the people don’t speak English but there are pleasant surprises too – In Bagan we met a 10 year old girl who spoke better English than 30 Burmese altogether 😉 We also encountered an amazing waiter, a super-kind driver and a great travel agency in Nyaung Shwe by Inle Lake – Mr A Tun is the name if you ever happen to come here. We found them via Myanmar Travel Guide app, went to book a trip to Inle and didn’t want to leave the place…
Alright, enough of the talking. People of Burma. I’ll leave you with them!
PS. love this little boy with thanaka all over him. He sold souvenirs on the bridge in Amarapura. I can’t stop looking at him 😉
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